Credit.com Reports on Girl Scouts "Good Credit" Badge

Jamie Pietras, contributing editor for Credit.com reports that The Girl Scout badge has always been a "social barometer", and highlights as evidence 1913′s “matron housekeeper,” which encouraged a working knowledge of housecleaning and meat market prices and the “signaller” honor of 1920, which fostered an understanding of Semaphore and Morse Code.

Today, Girl Scouts has a badge for “Good Credit,” as well as those for other personal finance achievements such as “Money Manager,” “Budgeting,” and “Financing My Future.”

“Girls really want to feel financially independent,” says Michelle Tompkins, a Girl Scouts USA spokeswoman. “The effect of money on every level—it’s something so prevalent right now in families, in society.”

The finance-oriented badges are among 136 unveiled in the Girl Scouts’ first badge redesign in 25 years, the result of a years-long process in which scouts themselves laid out a list of skills they would like to learn. While badges for financial prudence might seem particularly topical, Tompkins sees them as an extension of an ethos that has been in place since the 100-year-old organization began its cookie sales in the 1920′s.

“We’ve always had girls getting hands on business experience,” she says. Sound money management skills are a prerequisite for business and leadership success—aims Girl Scouts USA has always encouraged, according to Tompkins.

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